Album: A Day To Remember – Homesick

“It’s not easy making a name for yourself.” So states the opening line of ‘The Downfall Of Us All’, the first song on A Day To Remember’s second album. Of course, it helps a little if you record a rocked-up version of a massively popular song (in their case, Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Since U Been Gone’) and inject it into general public’s consciousness.

However, this Florida band have more strings on their guitars than just a novelty cover version, and Homesick, it seems, is the album to drive that point.

Veering between Slipknot and Blink 182, Silverstein and New Found Glory, the band mix genres that, on paper, shouldn’t really work, like an impressionable teenager who hasn’t quite worked out what scene to belong to – but also like a slightly older twenty-something who knows you don’t have to choose just one.

‘I’m Made Of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?’ rages like a demonic Jimmy Eat World, ‘NJ Legion Iced Tea’ could almost be a lost Taking Back Sunday track, while ‘You Know What You Are’ flits like Jekyll and Hyde between a roaring metalcore anthem and a pop-punk singalong in under a minute and a half.

Watch A Day To Remember covering Kelly Clarkson’s classic ‘Since U Been Gone’

What these two quite different sides of the coin do is balance each other out – bringing more gravitas to the band’s pop-punk side (a genre that’s often dismissed nowadays due to its oversaturation with anaemic, identikit bands), while adding a touch of tenderness to the often impenetrable metalcore maelstrom.

The one real letdown is the final acoustic number, which is too generic, too soppy, too much like the other bands they’ve spent the rest of the album not sounding like. Apart from these four minutes, however, this is a fine album.

4/6

A Day To Remember – Homesick tracklisting
The Downfall of Us All – 3:29
My Life for Hire – 3:33
I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What are You Made of? – 3:00
NJ Legion Iced Tea – 3:31
Mr. Highway’s Thinking About the End – 4:15
Have Faith in Me – 3:08
Welcome to the Family – 3:00
Homesick – 3:56
Holdin’ it Down for the Underground – 3:23
You Already Know What You Are – 1:27
Another Song About the Weekend – 3:45
If It Means a Lot to You – 4:03